The world is peppered with examples of incredible engineering projects and buildings designed to make life easier for those that used them, amaze those that came to see them – and make money for those that ordered, designed and built them.

They were the stuff of dreams. Often, as we’ll see in these shows, on occasion enormous engineering problems had to me resolved, obstacles overcome and new innovations employed just to get them built in the first place.

Alas, a great number of these remarkable structures have now been abandoned, cast aside like enormous expensive out-of-date toys, never to be used in the ways for which they were intended. Some fell prey to political arguments and financial problems or were perhaps unable to defy the passing years, the pace of new technologies or the vagaries of fads and fashion. Others failed because they were simply monstrous testimonies to the vanity, greed and sheer stupidity of the people that built them.

Series 2 - Episode 4: Battle of Britain Technology Facility

We make the difficult and dangerous ascent of Cresta Croce, to visit this incredible relic known in Italy as ‘La Guerra Bianca’ or ‘The White War’. With the help of a local mountain guide, we uncover the history of the gun and learn the full details of how it made its last almost impossible journey to the lonely outpost on the summit, where it still stands. We also dive into the flooded corridors and cells of Rumma quarry prison, to explore what is left of this notorious hard labour camp.

Series 2 - Episode 2: Germany's Lost Warship

We explore the graffiti-covered ruins of the Teufelsberg with a local expert, on its Cold War role to find out how it worked and why it was simply abandoned. With the help of a local enthusiast, who has explored the labyrinth of ruins, we penetrate the mysteries surrounding the operation at Pölitz, to find out how the process of making oil from coal worked. Uncovering along the way, how successful Allied bombing raids were detrimental in bringing its work to an end.

Series 2 - Episode 1: Britain's Sea Fort Complex

We explore the sand-covered ruins of the Salton Sea Base and with the help of a local historian reveal the full details of its role in atomic weapon development and post-war space missions. Venturing towards the deserted cell blocks of the Presidio Modelo, with a former prisoner to find out just how the ‘panopticon’ surveillance system was supposed to work. We also uncover the truth about Castro’s plans to murder all its prisoners, in the event of a US invasion.